A Withered Rose: Alternate Ending
by Lightning Streak
Summary: Alternate ending to the original story, "A Withered Rose" A longing heart swelling for the love of another...only to find a withered rose in return...


Disclaimer: Nope, don't own Danny Phantom and never will…….oh, the cruelty of disclaimers!

And once again, fan fiction has become the perfect place to dump my ideas at. Surprisingly, this story wasn't originally a story. It was a picture formed in my mind. Then my imagination ran away with it and now that picture came out as a story….

So, yeah….in this story, Danny and Sam are married and they're both 24.… ALTERNATE ENDING!!!!!!!!!

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**A Withered Rose**

Sam's pov

ALTERNATE ENDING

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I plopped down on the squishy couch with a remote to our DVD player. Our meaning Danny and I. But Danny wasn't there. In fact, he hadn't been home for a month… 

I sighed as I turned on the DVD and began watching some action packed violent movie that I didn't even know the name of.

Normally, a good action story cheered me up, but lately, it hadn't.

Whenever Danny left because of his job, I was always moody. As a ghost exterminator, he sometimes left for a couple days in a row. Sometimes I went a long, but mostly I couldn't because of my own job.

The past few times he'd been home, I noticed he was more beat up than usual. And that scared me. It scared me to think that maybe something went wrong and now he was lying in some ditch….

I sighed. I needed to get away from such thoughts, for they attacked my defenseless brain every waking moment.

Seeing that the movie was one I had already watched, I turned it off and flipped through the channels. One by one, I flipped through them, but to no avail.

Growling, I threw the remote down on the floor. Amazingly, the floor hit the remote just right, making it turn to a soap opera…..

I groaned, too lazy to lean over and pick up the remote, and almost too preoccupied to even care about the show.

I rested my head in my right hand as my eyes strayed to the screen. Of course, it just had to be a love story. It just HAD to be….

Slowly, I found my thoughts drifting away to that faithful day when Danny proposed three years back….

* * *

FLASH BACK! 

_We had been walking along the trails in the park, laughing, talking, and carrying on. Surprisingly, the park was deserted. Danny and I were the only ones there._

_"So," I asked comfortably, "what did you think of those exams you had to take?"_

_Danny smiled at me and said, "I think my brain went numb……" I laughed and he pulled me closer. "You?"_

_"Just about. My own phone number has been replaced with government statistics. I think that should tell ya something." I leaned my head up against his warm shoulder. _

_The sun was beginning to set, giving out a red-ish gold glow to everything it touched. It had to have been the most perfect sunset ever on record, making it the most romantic too…_

_The trail widened and opened up to a large fountain with lights of blue and green shining down on the water. Personally, I was getting sort of tired and needed to sit down. Without even asking, Danny picked me up bridal style and set me down on the fountain's ledge. _

_"Thank you," I whispered. It was so weird that Danny could read me like a book. _

_"No problem," he answered. He sat down by me and turned to face the water. I did the same, seeing mine and Danny's reflection in the water…_

_"When you look into the water," Danny said, "what do you see?"_

_I raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, I see you and me." I turned to face him again. "Why do you ask?"  
_

_"Because I see my future, beside you." _

_Time stopped. "Wh-what?" I stuttered, stunned. Did he just say what I thought he said?_

_He gracefully slid off the ledge and stood right in front of me. He bent down on one knee and held out a small open case._

_Within it was the most beautiful ring I had ever set eyes on. _

_"Sam Manson, will you marry me?" he asked solemnly._

_My jaw dropped as my mind tried to decipher his question. But then, the question's answer suddenly clicked in head._

_"Yes!" I said, throwing myself around him and crying with joy. I felt his arms lock around me in a state of pure happiness. _

_I let go to put on the ring. It fit perfectly. "And Sam?" Danny asked, his ice blue eyes lit up. _

_"Yes?" I whispered. He pulled out a single rose from nowhere and handed it to me as one last gift. _

_The sky was streaked with deep blue and purples as we kissed._

END FLASH BACK!

* * *

I sighed once again, remembering every last detail. Age twenty one was my golden year. I got married, I got hired into a well paying job, AND Danny's parents actually figured out how to shut off the portal whenever they wanted. 

But now, Danny was gone. I felt empty without him and cursed his work because of it.

Groaning, I realized something. I still had papers I needed to do from work. Snapping myself out of la la land, I got up out of the nice, squishy couch and headed to the master bedroom.

Up the stairs and to the right was our bedroom. It was a deep maroon with dark red stained oak. It was actually a big room, but not big enough that a person could get lost in.

I turned on the lights and opened up my closet, looking for my bag with all my files in it. Finding it, I picked it up. I was about to shut the door when something caught my eye. It was far in the back of my closet, but still close enough to see. I bent down and pushed back some clothes. I picked it up along with my bag and headed back to the bed.

I sat down on the silk comforter cross legged and pushed aside my work once more.

The thing that had caught my eye was a white box with writing on it. I hadn't seen it before, or if I did, I had forgotten about it.

The writing on it read _August 8, 2011. _

_That was the day Danny proposed! _I thought. Curious as to what was inside, I gently lifted up the lid. I gasped as recognition filled my mind.

It was a withered rose…

I lifted it in my hands, careful not to break off the petals. A tear rolled down my cheek as my heart swelled with the longing to see Danny again.

Just then, the phone rang. I jumped at its ring, but then sighed and picked it up.

"Hello?" I answered, really not in the mood to talk.

"Sam! Finally I got a hold of you!" a voice on the other end exclaimed. And I knew that voice anywhere.

"Tucker?!" I exclaimed. I hadn't heard from him in weeks! "Tucker, why are you calling me?" I asked, getting straight down to business. I had heard a certain type of tone in his voice when he first answered and I wanted to know what it was.

Silence deafened my eyes as I heard a faint sniffle over the line. "Sam, um, I'm not sure how to break this to you……"

I gripped the receiver tighter, my knuckles turning white. "Break to me what?" I asked apprehensively. "Did Danny forget the keys to the RV again?" I nervously laughed, knowing that was not the case.

"Sam, I-"

"It wasn't that? Oh, then did he forget his money? I haven't seen it here." I babbled. By now, my arms were shaking with the effort to calm down. Which was now impossible. I knew what was coming.

Tucker drew in a shaky breath and said really fast: "Danny's dead!"

I nearly dropped the phone in shock. I knew it was coming, but it was still a shock.

Danny's dead. Those words pounded themselves into my skull, echoing despair throughout my entire body. "H-How?"

I heard Tucker sob quietly. "He and me were coming back home. We were about to call you," he stopped for a second, " but then some idiot comes and plows right into us. I was lucky to escape before the car burned down. But Danny….." He couldn't say the rest, and I didn't think I could handle it either way…

"I need to go," I whispered through the receiver and dropped it, flinging myself onto my pillow.

No longer would I see those beautiful blue eyes staring back at me. No longer would I wake up to the burnt smell of the attempt to make pancakes. No longer would I feel those strong arms around me. I was alone.

Even when I could cry no longer, it still didn't seem like enough. My heart had been ripped out to a point of no return.

At long last I saw the moon's light reflecting on the walls. I slowly looked up to see the moon in its wild beauty: joyous despair.

I stared at it for the moment, lost in my memories. I soon found myself, however, fiddling with something in my hand.

I looked down at my hand and there was the rose from what felt like so long ago.

I gently laid it down on Danny's pillow as one last tear fell upon the rose.

_Already, we are broken apart. And all I have left of you is .... a withered rose...._

Whoa…sadness. Now, that came close to rivaling my other angsty story….Did you like this alternate ending? I really wasn't sure whether I should post it or no, but I decided why not and posted it anyway.

Please Review!

Lightning Streak


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